Raising the voice of workers in global supply chains the voice of workers in global supply ... buyer-driven supply chain, ... it then explores the micro perspective of three local

TANDIWE GROSS

Global leverages in the organising

strategies of three

'new' labour unions in the

Indian garment sector

"

"

Raising the voice of workers

in global supply chains

9

TTTTThought – Fhought – Fhought – Fhought – Fhought – Factory 09actory 09actory 09actory 09actory 09

RLS South Asia Working Paper Series – 2013

New Delhi 2013

ROSA LUXEMBURG STIFTUNG SOUTH ASIA

Tandiwe Gross

Raising the voice ofworkers in globalsupply chains

Global leverages in the organisingstrategies of three ‘new’ labour unions inthe Indian garment sector

TTTTTandiwandiwandiwandiwandiwe Gre Gre Gre Gre GrossossossossossKontakt: [email protected]

ImprImprImprImprImpressum:essum:essum:essum:essum:

RLS - Centre for International Co-operation

C-15, 2nd Floor, Safdarjung Development Area (Market)

New Delhi 110 016, INDIA

Phone: +91 (0)11 -49 20 46 00, Fax: +91 (0)11- 49 20 46 99

Website: www.rosalux-southasia.org

_______________________________________

Die Stiftung in Deutschland errDie Stiftung in Deutschland errDie Stiftung in Deutschland errDie Stiftung in Deutschland errDie Stiftung in Deutschland erreichen Sie unter:eichen Sie unter:eichen Sie unter:eichen Sie unter:eichen Sie unter:

Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, Berlin

Franz-Mehring-Platz 1

10243 Berlin, DEUTSCHLAND

TTTTThought Fhought Fhought Fhought Fhought Factoryactoryactoryactoryactory is a series of working papers of Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung – South Asia. Thecontributions have been developed usually in a close working-relationship with our office inNew Delhi. They should give a better understanding of the Region and its specific challenges.

The contributions in this series reflect the opinion of the author(s) – we would like todiscuss them with you.

ContentContentContentContentContent

AbbrAbbrAbbrAbbrAbbreeeeeviaviaviaviaviatttttionsionsionsionsions ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 55555

I.I.I.I.I. IntrIntrIntrIntrIntroductionoductionoductionoductionoduction ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 66666

II.II.II.II.II. GoGoGoGoGovvvvvernance of wernance of wernance of wernance of wernance of workorkorkorkorkererererers’ rights in global supply chains: an os’ rights in global supply chains: an os’ rights in global supply chains: an os’ rights in global supply chains: an os’ rights in global supply chains: an ovvvvvervieervieervieervieerviewwwww .......................................................................................... 88888

III.III.III.III.III. TTTTThe garment sector in India: a challenge fhe garment sector in India: a challenge fhe garment sector in India: a challenge fhe garment sector in India: a challenge fhe garment sector in India: a challenge for oror oror oror oror organisingganisingganisingganisingganising .................................................................................................................................................................................... 1313131313

IVIVIVIVIV..... BetwBetwBetwBetwBetween the local and the global: oreen the local and the global: oreen the local and the global: oreen the local and the global: oreen the local and the global: organising Indian garment wganising Indian garment wganising Indian garment wganising Indian garment wganising Indian garment workorkorkorkorkererererersssss ............................................................ 1616161616

1. GATWU: Organising garment workers in Bangalore .................................... 16

1.1. The garment industry in Bangalore ........................................................ 16

1.2. The Garment and Textile Workers Union (GATWU) .................................. 17

1.3. Organising strategies of GATWU .............................................................. 17

2. GAFWU: Organising garment workers in Chennai ....................................... 21

2.1. The garment industry in Chennai ........................................................... 21

2.2. The Garment and Fashion Workers Union (GAFWU) ............................... 23

2.3. Organising strategies of GAFWU.............................................................. 23

3. GAWU: Organising garment workers in Gurgaon .......................................... 26

3.1. The garment industry in Gurgaon .......................................................... 26

3.2. The Garment and Allied Workers Union (GAWU)..................................... 27

3.3. Organising strategies of GAWU................................................................ 27

VVVVV. Conclusion and per. Conclusion and per. Conclusion and per. Conclusion and per. Conclusion and perspectivspectivspectivspectivspectiveseseseses ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 3232323232

VI. RefVI. RefVI. RefVI. RefVI. Referererererencesencesencesencesences ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 3535353535

- 8 -- 8 -- 8 -- 8 -- 8 - RLS-South Asia • TRLS-South Asia • TRLS-South Asia • TRLS-South Asia • TRLS-South Asia • Thought Fhought Fhought Fhought Fhought Factory - 09actory - 09actory - 09actory - 09actory - 09

AbbreviationsAbbreviationsAbbreviationsAbbreviationsAbbreviations

AITUC All India Trade Union CongressAFW Asia Floor Wage CampaignBMS Bharatiya Mazdoor SanghCCC Clean Clothes CampaignCividep Civil Initiatives in Development and PeaceCITU Centre of Indian Trade UnionsCSR Corporate Social ResponsibilityDA Dearness AllowanceESI Employees’ State InsuranceFFI Fibre & Fabrics InternationalGAWU Garment Workers UnionGAFWU Garment and Fashion Workers UnionGATWU Garment and Textile Workers UnionGFA Global Framework AgreementGCR Greater Chennai RegionGDP Gross Domestic ProductHMS Hind Mazdoor SabhaICN India Committee of the NetherlandsICEM International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ UnionsIMF International Metalworkers’ FederationINTUC Indian National Trade Union CongressILO International Labour OrganisationITGLWF International Textile Garment and Leather Workers’ FederationJKPL Jeans Knit Pvt. LtdMFA Multi Fibre AgreementMSI Multi-Stakeholder-InitiativeMEM Mazdoor Ekta ManchM&S Marks & SpencerNCR National Capital RegionNGO Non-governmental organisationNTUI New Trade Union InitiativePF Provident FundPTS Penn Thozhilalargal SangamSEZ Special Economic ZoneSHG Self-Help-GroupSLD Society for Labour and DevelopmentTNC Transnational CorporationUNGC United Nations Global CompactUWC United Workers CongressWRC Worker Rights ConsortiumWTO World Trade Organisation

TTTTTandiwandiwandiwandiwandiwe Gre Gre Gre Gre Gross, Raising the voss, Raising the voss, Raising the voss, Raising the voss, Raising the voice of woice of woice of woice of woice of workorkorkorkorkererererers in global supply chainss in global supply chainss in global supply chainss in global supply chainss in global supply chains - 9 -- 9 -- 9 -- 9 -- 9 -

I. Introduction

In the era of liberalisation and international competition, the garment sector hasbecome a showcase for the growing power of transnational corporations (TNCs) inglobal supply chains. Transnational corporations have accumulated an immense degreeof power in the global garment industry because the garment sector is a typicalbuyer-driven supply chain, “in which large retailers, marketers and brandedmanufacturers play pivotal roles in setting up decentralized production networks in avariety of exporting countries, typically located in developing countries”.1

In response to increasing public anger about abusive working conditions in the industry,many TNCs started to adopt voluntary “codes of conduct” laying down social andenvironmental principles to be followed in the supply chains from the early 1990sonwards; this was followed by the development of an array of mechanisms to regulateworkers’ rights in the global garment industry. However, after more than two decadesof different initiatives, the global garment industry is still characterised by abysmalworking conditions, ranging from forced overtime and physical abuse to new formsof bonded labour, unsafe working conditions and severe suppression of trade unionactivity.2 Considering this persistence of severe labour rights violations, there is agrowing consensus that the dominant system of governing workers’ rights via privatecodes of conduct and social auditing does not lead to sustainable improvement ofworking conditions.3 This failure has especially been noted with regard to freedom ofassociation, which has been described as “labour’s most threatened right in the post-quota era of textile and garment production”.4

Assuming that freedom of association is central to improving working conditions onthe ground, the objective of this paper is twofold. Based on an analysis of secondaryliterature, it provides a brief overview on the role of local trade unions in the dominantsystem of governance of labour standards in global supply chains. In the second part,focusing on the case of the Indian garment industry, the paper aims at exploring thechances and challenges of local and international organising strategies in the contextof the dominant corporate system of governing workers’ rights in global supply chains.

1 Devaraja 2011: p. 2.2 Hale / Shaw 2001; Esbenshade 2004; Hurley 2005; Jones 2006; Wick 2007, 2009; Pangsapa2007; Overrem / Peepercamp 2012.3 Anner et al. 2012: p. 2.4 de Neeve 2008: p. 214. From 1974 to the 2005, the global trade in textiles was regulatedby the Multi-Fibre-Agreement (MFA), a multi-lateral agreement on the trade on textiles underthe umbrella of the World Trade Organization (WTO).


For this purpose, the case of three ‘new’ labour unions in the Indian garment sectorhas been chosen: the “Garment and Textile Workers’ Union” (GATWU) in Bangalore,the “Garment and Allied Workers’ Union” (GAWU) in Gurgaon and the “Garment andFashion Workers’ Union” (GAFWU) in Chennai.

These unions are described as ‘new’ labour unions because all of them represent afairly new approach emerging in the Indian labour movement under the umbrella ofthe ‘New Trade Union Initiative’ (NTUI), a trade union federation founded in 2006. Themain aspects characterizing it as a federation exploring a “new” form of unionism ascompared to the established Indian trade union movement are (a) the strong focuson independence from political parties5, (b) the explicit emphasis of alliance-buildingwith non-governmental organizations6, and (c) the focus on organising the workforcein the informal sector as well as the increasing number of highly precarious contractworkers.7 According to Ashim Roy, at the time of the field research for this papergeneral secretary of the NTUI, 65% of the membership of NTUI are workers in theinformal economy (20% contract workers, 45% workers in the informal sector)8. Inaddition, the NTUI has set out to explore a grassroots-oriented, gender and castesensitive form of trade unionism.9

Being a young federation, the NTUI with an estimated 800 000 members10 is muchsmaller than the established central trade union organizations.11 However, in the keyexport oriented production hubs of the garment industry, trade union organizing hasbeen difficult because of a largely female and/or migrant and contractual workforce.12

In contrast to that, the three unions introduced above were chosen because preliminaryresearch has shown that they have been relatively successful in organising workersin the extremely union-hostile environment of the export oriented garment industryin India. Seeking to explore the reasons for the relative success of these unions andtheir use of local and international strategies, the analysis looks at the following sub-questions: What are the main characteristics of the local organising strategies of thethree unions and how are they integrated with international strategies? What

5 Close links to political parties are a historical characteristic of the Indian trade union movement(Bhomwik 2012: pp. 118- 129). The NTUI is the only national trade union federation whichwas explicitly founded on the basis of independence from political parties (see also Höllen2010).6 Article 3.23 of the NTUI constitution emphasizes the association “with non-union organisationsthat share the broad aims and objectives of NTUI and contribute effectively to unionisation,collective bargaining, and campaigns” as an explicit objective of the federation.7 Höllen 2010: p.41.8 Interview Roy 2013: p.1.9 Bhattacharjee and Azcarate 2006.10 Interview Roy 2013: p. 1.11 Membership claims of the largest Indian trade union federations in 2011: INTUC: 33.3million; BMS: 17.1 million; AITUC: 14.2 million; HMS: 9.1 million; CITU: 5.7 million (Menon2013). These numbers are still to be verified by the Indian state. In general, trade unionmembership claims have to be read with caution, as a complete verification is difficult andfigures vary based on whether agricultural labourers are included in the counting or not (TheIndian Express 03.06.2013).12 Mani 2011: p. 12; RoyChowdhury 2005: p. 2251. The widespread prevalence of patriarchalfamily structures in India is a huge constraint to organizing female workers, as family membersmay oppose the participation of female workers in trade union activities.


opportunities and challenges do they encounter while using global leverages to supportorganising on the ground?

Methodologically, the paper is based on field research in Chennai, Bangalore andGurgaon with semi-structured expert interviews with trade union representatives andrelated labour experts in the period of April – December 2013. This is complementedby analysis of press releases and internal documents of the respective trade unionsas well as desk research on secondary literature. Starting out with a macro perspective,the paper traces the main trends in the governance of workers’ rights in global supplychains and the role of local trade unions. Taking up the case of the Indian garmentindustry, it then explores the micro perspective of three local trade unions in Indiaand their respective organising strategies at the local and international level. Basedon this analysis, the conclusion outlines key findings on the role of local trade unionsin the governance of labour standards in global supply chains and on the chances andchallenges for local trade unions in raising the voice of workers in the global garmentsupply chain.


II. Governance of workers’ rights in globalsupply chains: an overview13

Since its founding in 1919, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) brings togethergovernment, employer and worker representatives of its currently 185 member statesin order to set international standards for workers’ rights. However, the implementationof these standards especially in ‘developing’ countries is weak. This has led to aconsiderable gap between the theory of standards and the reality of implementation.14

With the liberalisation of the world economy and increasing outsourcing ofmanufacturing processes to ‘developing countries’ since the 1970s, the question ofcorporate abuses of labour and human rights in global supply chains started to triggerincreasing public attention in industrialised countries.15 In response, and in line withthe dominant discourse of economic liberalisation, the idea of corporate self-regulationvia the concept of »Corporate Social Responsibility« (CSR) gained ground since theearly 1990s. Lacking a universally accepted definition, the concept of CSR is basedon the broad idea of a responsibility of business for its impact on society and humanbeings. Under the pressure of civil society, many transnational corporations started toadopt voluntary codes of conduct in the name of CSR, which state social and sometimesenvironmental principles the company aims to follow in its business actions.16 Legally,a code of conduct is a »declaration of intent« which does not generate any legalobligation for the transnational company to ensure implementation of the same. Thiscreates little incentive to ensure proper implementation, as in most cases, supervisionof the codes of conduct remains within the company itself through mechanisms ofinternal monitoring. In terms of content, some codes of conduct include specificreference to conventions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the HumanRights Declaration or other norms of international law, whereas others consist ofvague principles of behaviour. Increasing public criticism in terms of ineffective

13 Due to space constraints, this chapter does not elaborate on the different mechanisms indetail, but aims at tracing the broad trends in the governance of workers’ rights in globalsupply chains.14 Hepple 2005: p. 39.15 Utting 2002: p. 72; Wick 2005: p. 11; Anner 2012: p. 5.16Though the concept of CSR looks back on a long history (see Caroll 1999), it only becamepopular among TNCs since the 1990s with the emergence of codes of conduct. Except forthe basic claim of a social and environmental responsibility of corporations, there is nouniform definition of CSR among academia and political stakeholders such as trade unions,non-governmental organizations, states and business. Especially in terms of its scope andwhether it should be voluntary or regulated by the state, the concept of CSR is highlycontested (see for example Crouch 2006; Utting 2005, 2008).


implementation of the codes of conduct has pushed some companies to employexternal auditors for the monitoring process. This applies however to a minority ofcompanies and, even in cases when external auditors detect a violation of the codeof conduct, it is still the company itself which decides on the actions to be taken.Voluntary company-based codes of conduct are therefore mainly corporate-driven, asit is the company itself which takes all the decisions regarding external monitoring,publishing of audit results and actions to be taken.17

In addition to the corporate governance system of codes of conduct, a number ofinitiatives have emerged which include other non-corporate stakeholders. On theinternational level, one of the largest initiatives is the UN Global Compact (UNGC), apolicy network initiated by the United Nations in 2000 as a global platform for CSR.Today, with a total of over 10.000 members, including more than 7000 companies, itcomprises representatives of the UN, nation states, NGOs, trade unions, researchinstitutions and companies.18 Through their membership in the Global Compact,companies agree to comply with its social and environmental principles. They arethen supposed to report about the implementation of principles in a so-calledcommunication of progress, which is a statement of case studies and best practiceprojects in their annual reports.19 The Global Compact does not contain any provisionsregarding the process of monitoring the implementation of principles on the ground,nor does it assign any particular role to local trade unions or labour organisations.

Another approach to the governance of worker’s rights in global supply chains are“Multi-Stakeholder-Initiatives” (MSIs). MSIs bring different stakeholders to oneplatform: corporations, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), trade unions, staterepresentatives and academia. These stakeholders negotiate a code of conduct whichmember companies are asked to respect in their business actions. It is monitoredthrough different mechanisms, while in most cases a joint multi-stakeholder bodydecides on the sanctions to be applied in case of violations of the code.20 As theyopen spaces to include trade unions and non-governmental organisations into thegovernance process, MSIs are generally considered to be more effective in improvingworking conditions in global supply chains than unilateral corporate codes of conductwhich are solely governed by the corporation.21 However, Fransen and Kolk argue thatMSIs are not always as inclusive in terms of multi-stakeholder involvement in theiroperations as they set out to be. Only a minority of MSI analysed by the authors areusing multi-stakeholder monitoring bodies, which include local trade unions and NGOs,while most of them are using the same auditing companies which are hired for themonitoring of private company codes of conduct.22 A new form of multi-stakeholder

17 Kocher 2008: p. 199.18 United Nations 2012.19 Göpel 2003.20 Wick 2005. Examples of MSI are the Fair Labour Association (FLA), the Ethical TradingInitiative (ETI), the Workers Rights Consortium (WRC) and the Fair Wear Foundation (FWF)(Ibid.).21 Ibid.22 Fransen and Kolk 2007: p. 11.


governance is emerging in the “Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh”,which gained importance after the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in April 2013killing more than 1,120 people, most of them garment workers. Signed by more than120 transnational corporations, the two Global Union Federations IndustriALL andUNI, seven national trade unions in Bangladesh and international workers’ rightsnetworks as observers, it aims at improving fire and building safety in Bangladesh’sgarment industry through independent building inspections and reports, fundingobligations of buyers and a binding dispute settlement clause.23 The position of localunions as signatories and their access to the factories as part of the training teamson fire and building safety reflect a stronger recognition of their role in the governancesystem as compared to most other initiatives. However, only practice will show howlocal unions are integrated in reality. Moreover, the Accord is limited to fire andbuilding safety while ignoring the rampant problems of low wages, excessive over-time and union repression in the sector. Moreover, it covers only the factory productionpart of the garment chain and is restricted to only one country.

A third instrument for regulating labour standards in global supply chains are “GlobalFramework Agreements” (GFAs)24: these are contracts signed between a multinationalcorporation and a Global Union Federation with regard to labour rights in the globalsupply chain of the respective company. GFAs started to emerge in larger numbersin the 1990s, leading up to a number of 85 active GFAsin 2012.25 Most GFAs containinternal complaint mechanisms: if violations are detected, local union representativescan file a complaint to a joint committee consisting of trade unions and corporaterepresentatives.26 However, the actual power of the local union in the monitoring anddecision-making process in the context of the GFA may still vary considerably. Accordingto Fichter et al., the implementation of GFAs on the ground is often limited and thesuccess strongly depends on the involvement of local unions and management notonly in the implementation, but also at the preliminary stages of initiation andnegotiation of the agreement.27 Although offering a higher scope for participation oflocal unions, the overall role of GFAs in the governance of workers’ rights in globalsupply chains is limited as their conclusion is voluntary, similar to the membership inan MSI. Compared to a total number of more than 82.000 transnational corporationsworldwide28, the coverage of a total number of 85 active GFAs concluded until todayis limited.

For the majority of companies, unilateral company codes of conduct in some casescoupled with external verification through private audit firms remain the dominant

23 See also Gross 2013.24 An alternative term for the same kind of agreements is “International Framework Agreements”(IFAs).25 Fichter et al. 2012.26 Fichter and Sydow 2008.27 Fichter et al. 2012. Similar results have been found by Thomas (2011: p. 284) who arguesthat the effectiveness of IFA’s is limited if local trade unions are not assigned not enoughimportance in the process. For a deeper discussion of the effectiveness of GFAs and the roleof local unions in this context see also Bourque 2008; Gregoratti and Miller 2009.28 UNCTAD 2010.


system of governing labour standards in global supply chains.29 Beyond the ILO’ssupervisory machinery, which addresses states, and in the absence of a bindingregulatory framework for holding transnational corporations accountable for humanand labour rights abuses in their global supply chains, voluntary “monitoring forcompliance with codes of conduct is the principal means”30 used to address workers’rights in global supply chains. However, despite a variety of monitoring and auditingmechanisms developed by companies, research by NGOs, trade unions and civil societygroups in different countries continues to detect massive labour rights violations inthe supply chains of companies which have a code of conduct.31 Drawing on anempirical assessment of the implementation of codes of conduct, even the WorldBank concludes that the approach of unilateral top-down codes of conduct has been“insufficient and even inefficient in achieving further real and sustainedimprovements”.32

Notably, it has been found that codes of conduct have especially failed to yield resultswith regard to non-technical labour rights such as freedom of association and workplaceharassment.33 This correlates with the fact that the private corporate-controlledgovernance system is often characterised by a disconnection from workers and localtrade unions on the ground: external auditors hardly speak to workers without theinfluence of the management and can only check working conditions by conductingspotlight checks, while local trade unions and workers’ groups are mostly excludedfrom the monitoring of codes of conduct in the factories.34 The role of workers in theenforcement of labour rights in this governance system has been described as “passiveor marginal”35 with codes of conduct as a new form of paternalism which assumesthat workers’ rights can be better assured by corporate monitoring than by self-organisation.36 With regard to MSIs it has also been found that the effectiveness inensuring freedom of association on the ground crucially depends on the influence oftrade unions in the development and implementation of the initiative.37 Despite thesefindings, corporate influence continues to play a dominant role in most monitoringprocesses while trade unions are being side-lined. After two decades of ineffectivenessin preventing the violation of rights of the large majority of workers in global supplychains, the failure of voluntary, corporate-led auditing mechanisms culminated in thecollapse of the Rana Plaza building in April 2013: the collapsed building included twofactories that had been certified only weeks before the collapse by the renownedGerman certification company TÜV Rheinland as being compliant with the standards

29 Egels-Zanden 2007: p. 3.30 Locke et al. 2007: p. 20.31 See for example Hütz-Adams 2010, 2011; Wick 2007, 2009.32 World Bank 2003: p. 2.33 de Neeve 2009: p. 70; Barrientos and Smith 2007: p. 720.34 Kemp 2001: p. 16; Clean Clothes Campaign 2005: p. 41; Blowfield / Dolan 2008: p. 16.35 Thomas 2011: p. 270.36 Esbenshade 2001; Thomas 2011.37 Anner 2011: p. 2.


of the Business Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI).38 The garment factory Ali Enterprisesin Pakistan, which left 262 workers dead after burning down in September 2012, hadbeen certified by the international auditing organisation Social AccountabilityInternational (SAI) less than a month before the fire.39

Against this background, the following analysis looks at the strategies of three ‘new’trade unions in the Indian garment sector in raising the voice of workers in thedominant system of corporate-controlled private governance and claiming their pivotalrole in protecting workers’ rights through a strategic linkage of local and internationalorganising strategies. The following chapter prepares the ground for the analysis bysummarizing the main features of the Indian garment industry and briefly describingits history of unionisation.

38 Der Spiegel 27.02.2014. BSCI is a company-controlled CSR initiative with over 1,000 membercompanies in Europe. Workers of the garment factories in the Rana Plaza building haddetected cracks in the wall on the day prior to the collapse. However, on the day of thecollapse, workers were forced by the management to enter the building despite an evacuationorder by the police, threatened with wage deduction if they refuse to enter the building. Noneof the garment factories producing in Rana Plaza had a trade union in place which could builtthe collective strength of workers to refuse entering an unsafe building (CCC 2013).39 Claeson 2012: p. 22.


III. The garment sector in India: a challengefor organising

“In the post-MFA situation, the unionists’ task is turning out to betougher than before because employers adopt diverse strategies with thesingle objective of creating textile mills and garment factories withouttrade unions.” 40

Based on a tradition of home-based tailoring for the Mughal royal empire in the 17th

century, the Indian textile industry developed into factory production in the 19th

century under the British colonial rule. In order to withstand the competition ofBritish fabrics, production initially focused on the domestic market and was negligiblein size until the 1960s.41 From 1974 to the beginning of 2005, the Multi-Fibre-Agreement(MFA) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) mandated export quotas for all textileexporting countries in order to protect the domestic markets of industrialized countries.The economic liberalization of the country after 1991 and the abolition of the quotasystem with the end of the MFA in the beginning of 2005 boosted the growth of thetextile and garment industry and made India a “prime-location for ready-made garmentassembly”42 after other major producers such as Bangladesh and China. Today, theIndian textile and garment industry represents an important source of economicgrowth: it contributes 4% to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 11% toits export earnings.43 Directly and indirectly employing more than 45 million people,the textile and garment industry is the country’s second largest employer afteragriculture.44 As a sub-section of the textile industry45, the garment industry employsaround 7 million people, out of which half are producing garments for export.46 In2006, the Government of India described the textile industry as “undoubtedly, one ofthe most important segments of the Indian economy”.47 Within the industry, thesignificance of the garment sector for export-oriented growth becomes clear whenconsidering that the garment sector accounted for 8.....2% of the country’s total exports

40 A. Aloysius (founder of a labour rights organization in Tirupur), cited in Dorairaj 2010: 4.41 Mezzadri 2008.42 Jenkins 2012: p. 3.43 Government of India (Ministry for Textiles) 2013: p. 35.44 Ibid.45 According to Singh (2009: p. 5) products such as towels and bed-covers fall under thepurview of textile, while the garment industry covers apparel and related accessories.46 The Indian Express 31.05.2011.47 Government of India (Ministry of Textiles) 2006: p. 2.


in 2009.48 Despite a slowdown in textile and clothing exports in the financial year2012/1349, India’s plans for the textile industry are ambitious: by the end of 2017, itis targeted to nearly double India’s exports of textiles and clothing.50 In order tocombat the recent slowdown in the growth of textile and clothing exports, the Ministryof Textiles recommends amendment to labour laws “at the Apparel Stage […] topermit longer hours of overtime with due compensation, and to allow flexi-hiring of labour, i.e., according to variations in orders”.51 Notably, the newgovernment elected in May 2014 seems to follow these industry demands with awhole set of large-scale labor law reforms. The proposed reforms include an increaseof the overtime limit for employees from 50 hours a quarter to 100 hours (BusinessStandard 13.11.2014) and an exemption of all enterprises with 40 or less employeesfrom key labour laws such as those on working conditions, overtime, health andsafety at the workplace, minimum wages, health insurance, pension, maternity benefits,and industrial disputes (Firstbiz 17.10.2014).52

This strategy fits into a picture in which labour flexibility and price competitivenessare the main sources of competitive advantage in the garment sector. In India, thishas led to a “race to the bottom insofar as labour standards and wages areconcerned”.53 In this extremely competitive environment, working conditions in theIndian garment sector are characterised by forced and unpaid overtime work leadingto working days of up to 11 hours, non-payment of health and welfare benefits andminimum wages, harsh production targets, sexual and verbal abuse, lack of maternityand other leave, lack of accident insurance, absence of toilet and crèche facilities.54

In case of Tirupur’s textile and garment industry in the South Indian state of TamilNadu, an estimated 100,000 young girls from impoverished rural areas are kept in amodern form of ‘forced labour’ in the premises of spinning and garment factories;they receive the bulk of their salary only after the end of a 2 to 3 years contract,which prevents them from leaving the factory or complaining about workingconditions.55 The minimum wage for unskilled workers ranges between Rs. 4,500 permonth in Karnataka56 and Rs. 4,847 in Haryana in 201257, which is far below a living

48 Italian Trade Commission 2009: p. 4.49 Government of India (Ministry of Textiles) 2013a: p. 4-5.50 Government of India (Ministry of Textiles) 2013a: p. 1.51 Government of India (Ministry of Textiles) 2013a: p. 5.52 It is proposed to cover these enterprises by a new regulation entitled bill the “SmallFactories (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Services) Bill, 2014 (Firstbiz 17.10.2014).The draft bill is available on http://labour.gov.in/upload/uploadfiles/files/latest_update/what_new/5437e6a63557bSME23.sept.pdf (last accessed 13 November 2014).53 Singh 2009: p. 3.54 RoyChowdhury 2005; Singh 2009; Lyimo 2010; Maher 2010, Jenkins 2012.55 Verite 2010: p. 11; Overeem / Peepercamp 2012: p. 1. According to the Supreme Court ofIndia, »force« in a labour relationship refers to any factor “which compels [a person] to adopta particular course of action” (Srivasta 2005: 3). The “Sumangali Scheme” can therefore bedescribed as a new form of ‘forced labour’ since wages are largely withheld by the employers,thus forcing the worker to stay at the workplace until completion of the two to three yearscontract period if he or she wants to receive the salary.56 Khan 2012: p. 1.57 Society for Labour and Development 2012a: p. 6.


wage level of Rs. 12,096 as calculated by the Asia Floor Wage Campaign (AFW).58

Despite a wage level which is far below a living wage, business analysts fear thatrecent wage increases in the industry may threaten the ‘competitive edge’ of theIndian garment industry.59

Geographically, the main production hubs of the industry are the National CapitalRegion (NCR) in the North, and Tirupur, Chennai and Bangalore in the South, whilefurther production takes place in Mumbai, Kolkata, Jaipur and Indore.60 In somepockets of the garment industry, contract work has emerged as the dominant patternof employment: a system in which the worker is not directly employed by themanufacturer, but by a labour contractor. Theoretically, these workers are eligible forthe same social security and other employment benefits as permanent workers.However, in reality most contract workers do not receive any of these benefits andrisk to be terminated for any attempt of to claim their rights.61 Contract work isstrongly prevalent in the NCR with more than 80% of garment workers being non-permanent62 and in Tirupur with more than 90% of garment workers working oncontract.63 Gender-wise, the South Indian garment production is dominated by women,while the NRC region is an exception and mainly relies on a male workforce migratingfrom neighbouring states. Regardless of gender, most workers come from socially andeconomically disadvantaged sections of society and have little awareness of theirrights at work.64

In terms of unionisation, the textile industry has a long history of trade union struggle:it was the birthplace of the Indian labour movement with the founding of the “MadrasLabour Union” in 1918.65 The textile industry was an early stronghold of the labourmovement until the gradual decline of the industry after 1946, which resulted in theretrenchment of thousands of textile mill workers until the mid-1990s and a loss oftrade union strength in the sector.66 In contrast, in the export oriented garment sectorwhich gained strength after the 1990s, unionisation has been difficult. In Bangalore,there were some efforts of the established trade union movement in the 1980s and

58 Asia Floor Wage Campaign 2012: p. 1. The Asia Floor Wage Campaign is a coalition of over70 trade unions, labour and human rights organizations, NGOs and women’s rights groupsin over 17 countries campaign for a common ‘floor wage’ at a living wage level across theAsian garment industry (Merk 2011: p. 122). All the three unions presented in this paper aremember of the AFW, while the president of GAWU in Gurgaon, Ananya Bhattacharjee is alsoa steering committee member of the AFW (Asia Floor Wage Campaign 2012a). The termliving wage refers to a wage which should cover the basic needs including housing, educationand healthcare and basic savings for a worker and his dependants which refers to a standardsize family of one partner and two children (Merk 2011: p. 124).59 Germany Trade and Invest 2013.60 Mani 2011.61 Society for Labour and Development 2012: pp. 23, 45.62 Verite 2010: p. 5.63 Mani 2011: p. 11.64 Ibid.65 Bhomwik 2007: p. 116.66 RoyChowdhury 1996: p. 7; Luce 2009: p. 2.


1990s. However, in 1996 a CITU-led67 strike in a major garment factory called AshokaGarments resulted in the factory’s closure and lay-off of 10.000 workers, whichdiscouraged workers from any further unionisation.68

While Tirupur has seen some unionization by established trade union centres, Maniestimates that in total only 5% of the workforce in the garment sector is unionizedand ascertains that central trade union federations generally have a very weak presencein the sector.69 Despite abysmal working conditions in Bangalore as one of the mainproduction hubs of the garment sector, Roy Chowdhury states that “mainstream tradeunions in the city have shown a certain marked apathy towards this relatively newand predominantly female-oriented sector”.70 Against the background of a mainlyfemale, rural and wide-spread workforce in the case of Bangalore’s garment industry,an AITUC trade unionist explained: “The Balance Sheet remains nil in terms ofmembership at the end of sustained unionisation efforts in the sector”.71 Comparedto that, the three garment unions in Bangalore, Chennai and Gurgaon (NCR region)presented in this paper have indeed shown a relative success in organising workersin this difficult sector, which makes it worthwhile to explore their particular organisingstrategies in the context of the general exclusion of local unions from the dominantcorporate governance system.

67 The “Centre of Indian Trade Unions” (CITU) is a trade union federation which is (unofficially)linked to the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (Hoellen 2010: p. 16).68 RoyChowdhury 2005, Mani 2005.69 Mani 2011: pp. 5,12.70 RoyChowdhury 2005: p. 2251.71 Cited in Mani 2011: p. 13.


IV. Between the local and the global:organising Indian garment workers

In the following section, the three garment unions in Bangalore, Chennai and Gurgaonand their respective organising strategies are introduced in the context of the respectivelocal garment industry. Since the unions in Bangalore and Chennai are both locatedin South India and deal with a more similar workforce as compared to Gurgaon inNorth India, the analysis starts out by exploring the union work of the two Southerntrade unions.

1. GATWU: Organising garment workersin Bangalore

1.1. The garment industry in Bangalore

The garment industry of Bangalore is based on around 1,200 factories and employsan estimated workforce of around 500.000 people.72 Bangalore contributes 15% tothe total exports of garments from India, ranking between Delhi (30%) and Chennai(10%).73

More than 70% of the workers are women, who have migrated from rural Karnatakain search for employment. The garment industry is concentrated in three pockets inthe city and most of the workers live in the areas surrounding the garment factories.In contrast to other garment production hubs like Tirupur and Gurgaon, contract workis not prevalent in Bangalore: the majority of workers in the industry are permanentworkers.74 However, working conditions are highly problematic with working hours ofup to 11 hours per day, during which workers are often not allowed to sit, verbal andphysical harassment, non-payment of overtime wages, lack of appointment lettersand extremely high production targets that have negative implications for the healthof the workforce75. After Chennai, Bangalore has the lowest minimum wage level in

72 Singh 2009: p. 12.73 Ibid: p. 6.74 Interview Pratibha/Jayaram 2013: p. 21.75 Singh 2009: pp. 13, 15; Jenkins 2012: p. 5.


the country; the wage level of most workers amounts to Rs. 4,400 per month76, whichstands in sharp contradiction to the living wage level of Rs. 12,096 as mentionedabove.77 Due to harassment and low salaries, workers tend to change their workplaceoften in search for better working conditions, which compounds organising efforts.

1.2. The Garment and Textile Workers Union(GATWU)78

Expecting an increased competitive pressure on workers due to the announcedabolishment of the Multi Fibre Agreement, a group of garment workers in Bangaloredecided to start organising the sector in 2002. Since it was initially very difficult toapproach workers in the name of a trade union, the activists used the topic ofmicrofinance to build the first contact with workers. In that way, the workers werefirst organized in Self-Help-Groups (SHG) to establish a microfinance credit system,while the forum of the SHGs was then used to approach the issue of workingconditions and labour rights in the factories. In order to institutionalise this work,worker activists founded the community organisation “Garment Mahila KarmikaraMunnade”79 in 2004 with the help of development funds from international donors.Sustained by membership fees, Munnade is a women’s organisation which works oncommunity issues such as domestic violence, access to public services and education.However, lacking the formal status of a trade union, it is not able to take up work-related grievances in the community. For that reason, GATWU was formed in 2005and registered in 2006. Today, Munnade employs two full-time community organisers,whereas GATWU employs four full-time organizers. The union has around 6000members, including around 40 shop floor union leaders.

1.3. Organising strategies of GATWU

On the grassroots level, GATWU is working in a symbiotic relationship with Munnadewhich is taking up community issues while GATWU takes up labour rights issueswhich emerge in the factories. If Munnade organizers are reaching out to workersand encounter work-related problems, they refer the workers to GATWU, and vice-versa. In the organising strategy of GATWU, the work of Munnade function as a “pre-union concept”80 which helps to establish initial contact and build the trust of workers.Munnade was especially crucial in the beginning of the organising process in theindustry in order to prepare the ground for union work because the management ofmost factories did not perceive the work of a women’s organisation as a threat.Nowadays, GATWU is known to many workers in the garment industry and has

76 Interview Pratibha/Jayaram 2013: p. 21.77 Asia Floor Wage Campaign 2012: p. 1.78 This chapter is based on extensive interviews with representatives and a legal advisor ofGATWU in April 2013 in Bangalore (Interview Jayaram 2013; Interview Jayaram / Pratibha2013; Interview Mani 2013).79 In the following the abbreviation ‚Munnade’ will be used.80 Interview Jayaram / Pratibha 2013: p.4.


established its own standing, but is still working hand in hand with Munnade in orderto address the problems of workers in the factories and in the community with aholistic approach. In addition to that, GATWU works with a broad network of supportingorganisations in Bangalore, including other women’s organisations and many localNGOs.

Strategically, GATWU focuses both on pressurising the state as the determinant ofminimum wage legislation for the garment sector as well as on holding localmanufacturers accountable for the implementation of labour laws. In case of labourrights violations in a factory, illegal closures or other complaints of workers, the uniontries to use the labour department and the court machinery for redress81. If theselocal instruments are not working, GATWU takes the issue to the respective buyer ofthe factory, and if even that does not work, the union contacts international pressuregroups such as the Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) or the Worker’s Rights Consortium(WRC). In this context, the former vice-president of the union considers cooperationwith international pressure groups and direct contact to brands to be “very, veryimportant. Without the international cooperation, we can’t do anything.”82 The followingcases illustrate the use of international leverages in the union’s organising strategy.

TTTTThe case of Fibre & Fabrics International and Jeanshe case of Fibre & Fabrics International and Jeanshe case of Fibre & Fabrics International and Jeanshe case of Fibre & Fabrics International and Jeanshe case of Fibre & Fabrics International and JeansKnit Pvt. Ltd.Knit Pvt. Ltd.Knit Pvt. Ltd.Knit Pvt. Ltd.Knit Pvt. Ltd.

In 2005, the Indian non-governmental organisation “Civil Initiatives in Developmentand Peace” (Cividep)83, which was cooperating with GATWU at that time, receivedcomplaints from workers working in the different units of the garment company“Fibre & Fabrics International” (FFI) and its subsidiary “Jeans Knit Pvt. Ltd” (JKPL),about abusive working conditions in the factory. Employing a total of 5.500 employees,FFI/JKPL supplied to a number of international brands, including G-Star as a majorbuyer.84 Following interviews with workers of FFI/JKPL which revealed severe labourrights violations in March 2006, GATWU sent several letters to the managementrequesting them to address the problem. Since the management did not react, GATWUcontacted the India Committee of the Netherlands (ICN)85 and the international CCCwho subsequently initiated a fact-finding mission86 in Bangalore, which confirmed theviolation of labour rights in the respective factory. Since the management did not

81 See Hill, Elizabeth – 2009: The Indian Industrial Relations System: Struggling to Addressthe Dynamics of a

Globalizing Economy, in: Journal of Industrial Relations vol. 51, no. 3, pp. 395 – 410 for anoverview on the Indian Industrial relations machinery.82 Interview Jayaram / Pratibha 2013: p. 24.83 Cividep is a Bangalore-based non-governmental organisation working on labour rights andon holding corporations accountable for their impact on society and the environment (Cividep2013).84 OECD Watch 2013.85 The ICN is a dutch-based non-governmental organisation working for the uplifting ofdeprived groups in India and for the improvement of working conditions in the global garmentand sports shoe industry.86 The fact-finding committee consisted “of representatives of various social, human rightsand women’s rights organisations, and social activists” (Lambooij 2010: p. 441).


react, the CCC and ICN started an international campaign against G-Star in June2006, asking the corporation to ensure the end of labour rights violations in thefactories of its supplier FFI/JKPL. Subsequently, the two international pressure groupsfiled a complaint with the Karnataka Department of Labour.

Claiming that the allegations of labour rights violations were false, FFI/JKPL obtainedan ex-parte injunction order from the Civil Court in Bangalore against members ofGATWU, Cividep, NTUI, Munnade, and the CCC Taskforce Tamil Nadu.87 The injunctionorder prohibited the concerned individuals from spreading information about thesituation in the FFI/JKPL factory. Following continuing international campaigning ofCCC, ICN and other international non-governmental organisations on this topic, FFI/JKPL initiated a court case before the Bangalore Magistrate Court for criminaldefamation, which resulted in an arrest warrant against members of the CCC and ICNin 2007. As the situation seemed to escalate, G-star cancelled its contract with FFI/JKPL in the end of 2007, which risked leading to a bankruptcy of the latter leavingthousands of workers unemployed.

Criticising this cut-and-run approach, the CCC and ICN continued internationalcampaigning which led to considerable involvement of political actors, including theDutch parliament, the Dutch cabinet and the EU commission. Finally, the case wasresolved through the mediation of the former Dutch Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers in2008, including the installation of an independent ombudsman for monitoring workingconditions in the factory and receiving future complaints, the reinstatement of buyingrelationships between G-Star and FFI/JKPL, the withdrawal of all court cases and theend of all campaigning activities of the international pressure groups and GATWU onthe subject. According to GATWU, the FFI/JKPL case has led to the establishment ofstrong contacts of the union to international pressure groups and to a strengtheningof the unions’ position vis-à-vis local manufacturers.

The case of Texport Overseas

In 2006, GATWU also encountered major problems in the factory Shalini Creations,a unit of “Texport Overseas” which was a major supplier to the international brandGAP employing a total of over 10.000 workers in the city. In this production unit, therewere strong anti-union policies, which led to the dismissal of the then General Secretaryof GATWU in 2006. This happened at the same time when the FFI/JKPL case wasgoing on and when the FFI/JKPL obtained an injunction order from the local courtto silence GATWU, the management of Texport Overseas followed that example andalso requested an injunction order from the local court against GATWU. Subsequently,in early 2007 the situation was aggravated when a pregnant worker of Texport Overseaswas forced to deliver outside the factory gates as she was denied permission to leavethe workplace even after severe labour pains started, resulting in the death of thebaby. Following this, GATWU directly addressed the management of GAP with theirprotest. The company, fearing similar international campaigning as in the ongoingFFI/JKPL case, took immediate action. A representative of GAP was sent to Bangalore

87 Lambooij 2010: p. 442.


to talk both to the Texport Management and GATWU, along with a representativefrom the then “International Textile Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation”(ITGLWF).88 As a result, the injunction order was withdrawn, the pregnant workerreceived a compensation of Rs.150,000 and an agreement was reached that theretrenched general-secretary of GATWU would not be re-instated but would be paidby the management to do union work for GATWU. Ever since that incident, theTexport management has become much more cooperative and is eager to solve anylabour disputes directly with GATWU. After the election of a new General Secretaryin 2011, GATWU obtained a written permission from the management to exempt itsnew General Secretary for seven days per month do to union work.

The case of payment of Dearness Allowance

Finally, a last example of effective use of international leverage is noteworthy. InIndia, the Minimum Wages Act provides for the monthly payment of a “DearnessAllowance” (DA), which is supposed to compensate workers for the wage loss resultingfrom inflation. The payment of DA is only mandatory for workers who work at theminimum wage level. However, in Bangalore, there is a large fraction of workers whoearn beyond the minimum wage but who are still far away from a living wage; theseworkers are not paid a Dearness Allowance. Demanding the payment of DA to allworkers in face of the extremely low wage level and inflation, GATWU pressurisedfirst the local manufacturers and subsequently the related international brands (GAPand H&M) in 2012. As a result, many of the manufacturers started paying DA to alltheir workers, covering an estimated 100,000 garment workers in the city.

In addition to the cases outlined above, GATWU has used pressure on internationalbrands in a number of other cases and is planning to intensify this strategy in thefuture, for example in the context of projected campaigns against workplace harassmentand excessive production targets. Furthermore, GATWU is one of the founding membersof the Asian Floor Wage Campaign, which works towards a common ‘floor wage’ forgarment workers in Asia in order to combat the corporate threat of relocation. Ingeneral international leverages were emphasised by GATWU representatives as anextremely important tool of organising. In this regard, the vice-president of GATWUstated: “We should not work with only local manufacturers, it will not work. Weshould not work with only the state for higher wages, it would not work. Because allthe things [are] in the brand’s hand. If we don’t go to the brand, there is not so muchsuccess in our work.” 89

As the basis for using international leverage, GATWU has carried out a detailed brandmapping, which allows them to identify which local manufacturer is supplying towhich international brand. In all of the cases summarised above, GATWU hassuccessfully used international pressure, either directly on the brands or viainternational networks, to enforce the implementation of labour rights in the factories

88 Today, the ITGLWF (the global union for the textile industry) is part of the IndustriAll, a newGlobal Union which emerged from fusion of the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF),International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM)ITGLWF in 2012.89 Interview Jayaram / Pratibha 2013: p. 23


of local suppliers of international brands. In the case of the Texport incident, the useof this leverage has fundamentally shifted the management’s attitude towards theunion and has contributed to its support to the union’s human resources through theexemption of the general-secretary for union work. Looking at the cases described bythe unions, international pressure seems to have contributed considerably to enlargingthe unions’ bargaining power and organising capacity on the ground.

2. GAFWU: Organising garment workersin Chennai90

2.1. The garment industry in Chennai

According to the representatives of the “Garment and Fashion Workers’ Union”(GAFWU) in Chennai, the garment industry in the “Greater Chennai Region” (GCR)employs an estimated workforce of around 350.000 people. Garment production isspread out over three large “Special Economic Zones” (SEZ) and another eight pocketswhere garment factories are located. Access to the SEZ is strongly restricted, whichmakes organising in the SEZ a very difficult task. In addition to that, most of theworkers live in far-flung villages around Chennai, which makes it difficult for GAFWUactivists to reach out to workers. Many of the workers depend on daily bustransportation provided by the garment factory itself. This is used as a means ofcontrolling the workforce, by cutting transportation from a particular village if workersfrom that village start to unionize or as a way of pausing employment for a few daysin order to circumvent labour laws which become applicable after 240 days ofcontinuous employment.91 Similar to the situation in Bangalore, the majority of workersare women, most of them young and unmarried. The main concern of garmentworkers in Chennai is the extremely low wage level, with the state of Tamil Naduhaving the lowest Minimum Wage level from all over India with currently Rs. 124(1,62 •) per day for unskilled workers.92 In addition to that, many workers do notadequately or not at all receive statutory social security benefits such as “EmployeesState Insurance” (ESI) and “Provident Fund” (PF), and there is a lack of ESI dispensariesin many areas.93 Harassment at the workplace, as well as sexual harassment, is

90 This chapter is based on extensive interviews with trade union representatives from GAFWUin April 2013 (Interview Mody / Sukumar 2013; Interview Mody 2013).91 According to Indian labour law, workers in establishments with more than 9 or 19 workers(depending on the use of power in the establishment) are eligible for a number of benefitssuch as paid leave, gratuity and bonus after completing 240 days of continuous work for oneemployer.92 Mody 2012: p. 4; conversion as per exchange rate on 11.06.2013.93 ESI is a statutory contribution-based medical insurance and sickness benefit scheme forworkers. Under this scheme, employers are mandated to deduct 1.75 % from the workers’wages and add an employer’s contribution of 4,5% of wages which will together be depositedat the ESI department of the government. Under ESI, workers are eligible for sickness benefitsand a number of other health benefits as well as medical treatment for themselves and theirdependants at ESI hospitals and dispensaries set up by the government (Employees’ StateInsurance Corporation 2011). PF is a mandatory retirement saving scheme under which theworker and the employer contribute both 12 % to a fund administered by the government(Society for Labour and Development 2012: p. 35).


another major problem, as well as huge amounts of forced and often unpaid overtimeleading to routine working days of up to 10 hours. If workers unionise, they becomesubject to all kinds of harassment by the management, ranging from public humiliationon the shop floor to being shifted to faulty machines so that workers cannot reachproduction targets or forceful resignation. Moreover, over the last few years, anincreasing number of production processes have been outsourced to contract workers:those are workers who are not directly employed by the manufacturer but by acontractor.94 According to GAFWU, only 60 % of garment workers are directly employedby the manufacturers, whereas 40% are contract workers. For contract workers, theworking conditions are even worse, as they often do not receive any social securitybenefits (health or pension schemes), nor do they receive any proof of employmentor payslips.95

2.2. The Garment and Fashion Workers Union(GAFWU)

The Garment and Fashion Workers Union (GAFWU) in Chennai emerged out of themobilising work of its partner organisation “Penn Thozhilalargal Sangam” (PTS), atrade union for stone quarry workers96, domestic workers and self-employed womenin the informal sector, which was founded in 2001. Catering to a membership ofaround 17,000 members today in the Greater Chennai Region, PTS supports informalwomen workers in dealing with problems such as domestic violence and pressurisesthe government to provide proper housing, sanitation and drinking water in thecommunities. Realising the increasing importance of the garment industry in the city,PTS organised a city-wide campaign with distribution of pamphlets on labour rightsfor garment workers in 2009. Many garment workers responded to that appeal, whichlead to the founding of GAFWU in 2009 and its registration as a trade union in 2010.PTS and GAFWU are still intrinsically linked, with the president of GAFWU being alsothe head of PTS and both organisations working hand in hand to support garmentworkers in the factories and informal women workers in the sector mentioned above.Both PTS and GAFWU are headquartered in the same office in central Chennai, withPTS having five branch offices and GAFWU having one branch office in the GreaterChennai Region. Funded by an annual membership fee and project-based fundingfrom international development agencies, PTS employs seven full-time organisers.GAFWU employs two full-time organizers and is funded through an annual membershipfee of Rs. 120, support from the NTUI and voluntary donations from members aftersuccessful court cases or settlements. The union brings together around 1.000 members

94 See Article 2 (b) of the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970.95 Legally, if there are more than 20 contract workers employed in an establishment oremployed by a contractor, the contract workers are eligible for all benefits provided forregular workers including minimum wages, social security benefits and payment of bonus(Society for Labour and Development 2012: pp. 8, 11). However, in practice many contractworkers are not receiving these benefits.96 Stone quarry workers are workers who crackle stones into smaller pieces to be used in theconstruction sector.


and six shop floor union leaders in different factories who are reaching out to workersat the factory level. The large majority of GAFWU members are directly employed bythe manufacturers; only very few contract workers are union members. This is linkedto the fact that GAFWU finds it difficult enough to organise ‘permanent’ workers whoin practice hardly have any employment security; for contract workers, the risk ofbeing fired for any unionization attempt is even higher.

2.3. Organising strategies of GAFWU

Similar to GATWU in Bangalore, integrated factory and community organising playsa central role in the organising strategy of GAFWU. Due to the wide geographicaldispersion of garment workers over the Greater Chennai Region, the work of PTSactivists and its members is indispensable for GAFWU in order to identify and reachout to the garment workers in the villages. Patriarchal family structures make itdifficult to organise these women, since in many cases the family does not allowthem to join trade union meetings after work or to engage with the trade union ingeneral. Here again, PTS plays a pivotal role in talking to the families and gainingtheir trust, in order to enable the garment workers to come to meetings of GAFWU.By working hand in hand, GAFWU and PTS can offer a platform to treat both socialand work-related problems of workers. In that sense, the close cooperation with PTSis a central strategy of GAFWU to reach out and gain the trust of garment workers.

In terms of local organising strategies, GAFWU has a strong focus on educatingworkers about their rights via pamphleteering and training programs, for example onthe right to access the health insurance and pensions schemes. Furthermore, theunion uses the local state machinery such as the labour department and the providentfund department as well as sit-ins in and outside factories to pressurise themanagement towards implementation of workers’ rights. A major success of thisstrategy was a settlement of over Rs. 70.000 for 115 workers who had not been paidtheir pensions for 4 years prior to the illegal closure of the factory in 2011-2012.

In contrast to GATWU in Bangalore, which uses international leverages as a majortool of the organising strategy, GAFWU in Chennai hardly uses international pressureas part of its organising strategy. It was used only in one case in 2010, in order toprotest against the harassment of union members in Celebrities Fashion, a supplierof the US-American brand Timberland. Following intense victimisation of GAFWUunion members in the factory, GAFWU filed a complaint to the Workers’ RightsConsortium (WRC), who then pressurised Timberland to rectify the situation. As aresult, Timberland carried out a special audit in cooperation with WRC and one of theunion members who had been dismissed and physically assaulted for her unionactivities was re-instated and received compensation for the wage loss endured afterdismissal. Following this incident, the management of Celebrities Fashion reduced thevictimisation of union members, which enabled GAFWU to establish a strong teamof core union activists in that factory.


The struggle for a higher minimum wage: difficultiesin building international links

Minimum wages for the garment sector in Tamil Nadu are the lowest as comparedto all other states in India: while the minimum wage for unskilled workers in otherstates ranges between Rs. 256 (Delhi) and Rs. 165. (Uttar Pradesh)97, it is only Rs. 124per day in Chennai98. According to the Minimum Wages Act 1948, the minimumwages for each sector need to be revised by the state governments every 3-5 years.However, in Tamil Nadu the minimum wage has not been revised since 2004: a groupof over 30 employers had obtained an interim stay order on the minimum wagenotification, arguing that a further hike of minimum wages would threaten theircompetitiveness on the world market. After unsuccessfully petitioning the Commissionerof Labour to ensure the lifting of the interim stay, GAFWU filed a case in 2010 at theHigh Court of Madras demanding the lifting of the interim stay order. This was finallyachieved in June 2012, when the High Court of Madras dismissed all the petitionsof the employers and lifted the stay order. Complementing the court case, GAFWUstarted a joint “Fair Wage Campaign” in May 2012 together with PTS, calling on thestate government for a new minimum wage notification for the garment sector andthe fixing of a minimum wage for domestic workers.99 Pressurising the state governmentfor a new minimum wage notification and working towards the lifting of the stayorder on the current minimum wage notification is thus a major element of GAFWU’slocal organising strategy. However, the president of GAFWU expressed major difficultiesin linking up with international campaigns while pressurising the state to ensure thelifting of the stay order and the issuing of a new minimum notification for Tamil Nadu:

“The minimum wages are not only fixed for Chennai, it is fixed forTirupur, it is fixed for the whole of Tamil Nadu. So my question is whatwere the NGOs and the trade unions in Tamil Nadu doing on the issueof minimum wages. Including what were the campaigns which supportthese NGOs doing? […] When they are talking of living wage campaignsand all these kind of issues. Because when we went to the governmentin 2009 to request for revising the petition, what were they doing?”100

In sum, it seems that overall international leverages play a much more limited rolein the organising strategy of GAFWU as compared to GATWU in Bangalore; as shownabove, international pressure has been used only once to counter the victimisation ofGAFWU members in a factory supplying to the international brand Timberland. Askedabout the reason for this comparatively little use of international leverages, the presidentof GAFWU explained that there is both a lack of personal contacts to internationalpressure groups, but also a lack of human resources to “regularly deal with theinternational campaign part”.101 For example, GAFWU has not been able to conducta brand mapping of Chennai in order to identify the international buyers of the major

97 The Hindu (05.04.2012).98 Mody 2012: p. 3.99 NTUI News 13.06.2012.100 Interview Mody 2013: p. 6.101 Interview Mody / Sukumar 2013: p. 22.


garment producing units in the city, which the union’s president perceives as “oneof the weaknesses”.102 Another reason for the union’s difficulty in using internationalleverages could be the strong focus on the state: a major element of the union’s localorganising strategy has been the pressure for a higher minimum wage in Tamil Nadu,a topic which according to the union’s president has been side-lined by internationalpressure groups. In that sense it seems that linking up with international advocacynetworks to support local organising strategies seems to be more difficult for a localunion if the addressee of the strategy is the state, as in the case of the minimumwage campaign presented above. This difficulty in using international pressure for astate-oriented organising strategy such as the Minimum Wage Campaign of GAFWUexposes an important rupture in the context of linking local and international organisingstrategies to ensure worker’s rights in global supply chains. Considering the freeglobal movement of capital while labour is largely nationally bound, it raises the moregeneral question of the feasibility of using international pressure to hold local statesaccountable for their role in protecting labour rights. After taking in the perspectivesof GAWU representatives in this regard, this aspect will be discussed further in theconclusion of the paper.

3. GAWU: Organising garment workersin Gurgaon103

3.1. The garment industry in Gurgaon

Situated in the North Indian state of Haryana, Gurgaon is the main production centreof garments in the National Capital Region. Since almost the entire garment workforceconsists of officially uncounted migrant workers from other states and neighbouringcountries, it is impossible to determine their exact number in the city. It is estimatedthat a large portion of the two to three million migrant workers in Gurgaon areemployed in the garment industry. The fact that most workers are migrant workersaggravates their living conditions, since most of them are not accounted for by thelocal authorities: unable to access local government services, they are often fearfulto complain to the state authorities about labour right abuses. Labour right violationsin the industry are rampant, ranging from illegal termination (often for attempts ofraising the voice against management or attempting to organise), to verbal andphysical abuse, forced unpaid leave, and illegal and unpaid overtime. Over 90% of thegarment workers are contract workers. The wage difference between permanentworkers and contract workers is marginal, but contract labour is used as an instrumentto avoid the payment of social security benefits to workers and to enforce unpaidovertime.104 Furthermore, the increasing use of contract labour is used as a means to

102 Interview Mody / Sukumar 2013: p. 4.103 The information in this chapter is based on interviews with a representative and a legaladvisor of GAWU in May 2013 in Delhi (Interview Bhattacharjee; Interview Barnwal 2013).104 See also Society for Labour and Development 2012 for a a variety of mechanisms usedby factory owners and contractors to escape the legal purview of the Contract Labour Act.


prevent unionisation. Especially contract workers are threatened harshly by thecontractors to suppress organising, using “death threats, physical violence, abductionand even killing to break unions”.105 Additionally, many factories employ so-calledgoons (local thugs) to control any attempt of workers to organise. However, bothcontract and ‘permanent’ workers are under the consistent threat of termination: “ifyou unionise today, tomorrow you can be thrown out”.106 The extremely repressiveenvironment in terms of freedom of association is also expressed by the fact thatthere is not one single registered trade union in the garment sector in Gurgaon.107

3.2. The Garment and Allied Workers Union(GAWU)

The history of the Garment and Allied Workers Union (GAWU) needs to be seen inthe context of its organic cooperation with the non-governmental organisation “Societyfor Labour and Development” (SLD) and the worker’s platform “Mazdoor Ekta Manch”(MEM) which are based in Delhi and Gurgaon respectively. The Society for Labourand Development is a grassroots-oriented labour rights organisation founded in 2006to improve the living and working conditions of workers and marginalised groups inthe National Capital Region.108 It is associated to the NTUI as a non-union organisation.In 2008, SLD initiated the founding of MEM, a platform of workers in Gurgaon aimedat improving the conditions of workers from different sectors at work and in thecommunity. MEM unites trade unions from different sectors as well as communityorganisations in the form of a “labour and community alliance, where labour andcommunity organisations have a space together”.109 In this way it also functions asa “soft entity”110 to reach out to workers in the context of the extremely union-hostileenvironment in Gurgaon which sometimes makes it difficult to approach workersdirectly in the name of a trade union. Following an initiative of garment workers inGurgaon, the Garment and Allied Workers Union was founded in 2008 with thesupport of MEM and SLD. Both MEM and GAWU are headquartered in the sameoffice in Gurgaon, with GAWU being funded by an annual membership fee of Rs. 60,individual donations and worker’s contributions for successful legal cases andsettlements. The union has a membership of 5,500 garment workers in Gurgaon andworks in around 15 factories. In terms of human resources it relies on the supportof the treasurer, the president and a legal adviser as paid ‘staff-members’, whereasit has around 150 shop floor unionists who organise as volunteers.

105 Maher 2010: p. 14.106 Interview Bhattacharjee 2013: p. 2.107 Registration refers to the process of achieving recognition by the state government underthe Trade Unions Act (Interview Barnwal 2013: p. 1).108 Society for Labour and Development 2013.109 Ibid. MEM unites four trade unions (GAWU, a domestic, metal and construction workers’union) and three community organizations and groups (a cultural organisation, a children’seducation programme and a women empowerment programme supported by SLD).110 Interview Barnwal 2013: p. 1


3.3. Organising strategies of GAWU

Similar to the organising strategies of the union in Bangalore, the close cooperationwith Mazdoor Ekta Manch is a crucial element of GAWU’s strategy for approachingworkers on the ground. With the help of a weekly ‘legal clinic’ - a free offer of legalassistance for workers at the MEM/GAWU office, cultural and community activitiesand counselling on social problems, MEM helps to build contact to workers and referthem to GAWU. Hence, the unions’ organising strategy on the ground is characterisedby an intense cooperation with other community organizations and the tackling ofworkers’ problems both at the factory and at the community level. In addition to that,MEM and GAWU organizers approach workers at the factory gates to enquire abouttheir problems in the factory and call for meetings in the union office. Subsequently,the workers’ complaints are collected, and if the worker agrees to become a memberof GAWU, GAWU files a complaint to the labour department about the respectiveproblem. In that process it happens regularly that union members are terminated ifthe factory management finds out about the unionisation and the workers’ complaint.Here, the legal advisor of GAWU explicitly mentioned the use of international pressureas a counter-strategy for the victimization of union members: “So if there is anytermination, then we write to CCC and international buyers”.111 He furthermoredescribed the use of international pressure as the main factor for the success ofGAWU in the union-hostile environment in Gurgaon: “Actually, we have to say we arevery exceptional that we are getting so much success...because it is very difficult towork in Gurgaon as a trade union [...] because first of all there is no union. Secondone is state and corporate lobby is totally against us”.112 Asked about the reasonsfor that success, he stated: “Actually I think international pressure has played veryimportant role; because most of the other unions don’t have international connection.We are using that so much”.113 Similar to GATWU in Bangalore, GAWU has used thecooperation with international campaigns and organisations and the direct contact tointernational buyers mainly as a leverage to improve working conditions and reducethe victimization of union members in individual factories. Looking back on a varietyof such cases, GAWU has experienced both successes and failures, which is illustratedby the following two cases of Modelama Exports and Viva Global. In addition to thefocus on manufacturers and buyers, GAWU has also integrated the international levelinto an organising strategy targeting the Indian state authorities, as illustrated by the‘Wage Theft Campaign’ presented last.

Modelama Exports: Re-instatement of union leaders

Modelama Exports is one of the biggest garment companies in Gurgaon which producesin 15 factories spread over different parts of the city and supplies to the US-Americanbrands “GAP” and “NEXT”. In three units of the company, GAWU has around 200union members, who with the help of GAWU formed a factory union (“Modelama

111 Interview Barnwal 2013: p. 8.112 Interview Barnwal 2013: p. 12.113 Ibid.


Worker’s Union”) in 2012 in order to improve the notoriously bad working conditionsin the factories. During the process of registering the factory union at the labourdepartment of the state, the documents with the names of union members leaked tothe company management. As a result, in beginning of 2013 the managementterminated 14 union members (in the form of forceful resignation) and transferredanother three union members to distant factories in order to prevent them fromorganising further.114 In response to that, GAWU held a protest sit-in (dharna) in frontof the factory to demand for re-instatement of workers and recognition of factoryunion. At the same time, the union contacted the management of GAP and Next totake action against the victimisation of union members in Modelama Exports, as wellas the CCC and the United Workers Congress (UWC), a grassroots-oriented US-American network of organizations representing marginalised workers in the UnitedStates.115 The UWC supported the struggle of GAWU by sending a ‘Human RightsDelegation’ to Gurgaon which published a report on the victimisation of union leadersin Modelama Exports and by protesting in front of GAP and NEXT stores in the USto raise awareness about the situation. Faced with the concerted pressure of GAWU,the CCC, and the UWC, GAP and NEXT responded by sending representatives toGurgaon to talk to the management of Modelama and to GAWU. While themanagement of Modelama initially refused to talk to the union, the situation changedafter integrating the international level:

“And situation is that he [the managing director of Modelama Exports]cannot even agree to talk with union, recognition is another thing. [...]but when CCC pressurized GAP and NEXT, and GAP and NEXT werecalling them, then they themselves came to table, and they were eventalking with workers in very polite manner [...]”.116

After several rounds of meetings between the management of Modelama Exports,GAWU and the representatives of the two buyers, the management agreed to re-instate the terminated union leaders along with providing back wages whereas thetransfer of union members was not revoked. In sum, although not all demands weremet, the use of international leverage has contributed to strengthening the union’sstanding towards the management and achieve the re-instatement of union leaders.

Viva Global: ‘cut and run’ of the international buyerbut a lasting impact on the industry

Another major struggle which involved international actors is the case of the companyViva Global which started in 2010. The Gurgaon-based garment producer Viva Globalwas a major supplier to the British retailer Marks & Spencer (M&S) and employedaround 500 workers, out of which around 200 workers were members of GAWU. Inorder to support workers’ demands to rectify labour rights violations and increase

114 United Workers Congress 2013: p. 2.115 United Workers Congress 2013a.116 Interview Barnwal 2013: p. 8.


wages according to the new minimum wage notification in Haryana, GAWU startedcampaigning on the issue, contacting the management and the labour department aswell as the CCC to improve the situation. While the management was initially responsiveand fulfilled the workers’ demands for a wage increment, it subsequently starteddismissing workers one after the other, finally dismissing all contract workers inAugust 2010. This reduced the total workforce in the factory to around 150 workers.When the workers, including the remaining ‘permanent’ workers, started to protestagainst the dismissals, they were locked out from the factory. Despite an agreementreached in the conciliation process at the labour department that the locked-outworkers would be reinstated, the workers were severely harassed and beaten bygoons when they tried to enter the factory to resume work, and one worker wasabducted. Again, the abducted worker was severely beaten and threatened to bekilled before he was released. In response to that, GAWU and its international partnersintensified their campaigning against Viva Global and its buyer M&S. This includeda hunger strike by GAWU’s president and protest actions in front of M&S stores inLondon which lead to a strong coverage of the case in international media. InSeptember 2010, M&S announced the cancellation of all orders from Viva Global,claiming that this decision was purely based on commercial reasons.117 This reactionof cancelling the order with the supplier in response to international pressure is oftenreferred to as ‘cut and run’ of international buyers. Since M&S had been the majorbuyer of Viva Global, representing 90-95% of the orders, Viva Global finally ceasedproduction.

While GAWU continues until today to fight for the wages of around 100 of the locked-out workers at the High Court of Chandigarh, this case shows the complexity of theoutcomes of international campaigning. One the one hand, the closure of the factoryrepresents a considerable loss of employment opportunities for garment workers inGurgaon. On the other hand, as shown above, the majority of workers had beenterminated before the main struggle and the cancelling of orders from M&S.Furthermore, the President of GAWU emphasised that the case of Viva Global needsto be seen from a larger perspective: “The whole opening up of the issue [of workingconditions] in Gurgaon, other managements are scared that Viva Global issue is notrepeated. They tell us ‘we don’t want you to shut us down like you shut down VivaGlobal’. [...] it had a huge impact in the area”.118

So on the one hand, ‘cutting and running’ of buyers potentially leading to the closureof the supplier’s factory remains a permanent risk of using international pressure andmay at first sight be judged as an overall failure of the case. On the other hand,however, an enquiry into the grassroots union perspective reveals the importance oflarger achievements in terms of a considerable increase of bargaining power for thelocal union.

117 Chamberlain 2010.118 Interview Bhattacharjee 2013: p. 6


Using international pressure to target the local state:a careful approach

Similar to GATWU in Bangalore, GAWU has also used international leveragespredominantly in cases targeting local manufacturers and related buyers. However,according to the union’s president, letters from international campaigns were alsoused sporadically to pressurise the labour department. Here again, the aspect ofbuilding bargaining power and strength through international leverages wasemphasised: “The labour department knows how far we can go, so they don’t wantto push us there. They don’t want to hear from international people”.119

Another organising strategy of GAWU which integrates both local and internationalinstruments while targeting the state is the campaign against wage theft called“Vetan chori band karo”120 which was started in cooperation with the worker’s platformMazdoor Ekta Manch in January 2012. Focusing on problems such as non-paymentof minimum wages, insufficient payment of overtime work, delayed payment of wagesand lacking access of workers to their entitlements of social security funds for healthand retirement, the campaign aims at pressurizing both the central government andthe state government of Haryana to ensure the implementation of labour laws toprevent these various forms of ‘wage theft’. The campaign is based on a variety ofelements: complaint letters to the labour department, awareness-raising and a signaturecampaign among workers, street plays and pamphleteering in front of the factorygates on the topic of ‘wage theft’ as well as pressure on the Provident Fund Departmentand on the Employees’ State Insurance Fund Department to facilitate the access ofworkers to their social security entitlements. In order to support the pressure on theIndian state, the campaign furthermore collected 2,100 signatures from local andinternational consumers and citizens in support of the campaign against wage theftvia an online petition addressed to the state and union government.121 At the locallevel, this awareness-raising campaign was supported by a photo exhibition portrayingthe living conditions of garment workers which was installed in a popular mall inGurgaon to reach out to the local consumers and citizens.122

The organising strategies of GAWU are thus combining a strong cooperation withother local organisations and local complaint mechanisms at the labour departmentwith direct contacts to brands and international networks to strengthen their bargainingpower at the local level. While international leverages are mostly used to pressuriseindividual manufacturers via their respective buyers, the union also carefully usesinternational pressure to target the Indian authorities. However, the president ofGAWU also emphasised the complicacy of international pressure targeting stateinstitutions: “Using international pressure to target the state has to be done very

119 Ibid: p. 5.120 Vetan chori band karo means ‘Stop the wage theft’ in Hindi.121 Mazdoor Ekta Manch 2013.122 Ibid.


carefully, because [...] as citizens we should be able to hold the state accountable,it’s an elected government”.123 This concern relates to the central question of thefeasibility and legitimacy of international labour networks, activists or consumerssupporting local unions in targeting the state for an improvement of working conditionsor for a higher minimum wage. Raised as a major gap in the linking of local andinternational organising strategies in the case of GAWU in Chennai, this aspect willbe discussed as one of the insights for further reflection in the following concludingdiscussion.

123 Interview Bhattacharjee 2013: p. 5.


V. Conclusion and perspectives

This paper has looked at the question of workers’ voices in global supply chains bothfrom a macro-level perspective of governance systems and a micro-level perspectiveof local and international organising strategies of three ‘new’ labour unions in theIndian garment sector. Starting out with an analysis of the macro-level of governingworker’s rights in global supply chains, it first provided a brief overview over thedifferent systems of governance and the role of trade unions in the same. Here, theanalysis of secondary literature has shown that while the number of multi-stakeholderinitiatives and bilateral International Framework Agreements between Global Unionsand TNCs is growing, the large majority of TNCs are still governing their supply chainsvia voluntary, unilateral codes of conduct. This corporate-controlled governance systemlargely excludes local unions and has failed to ensure the implementation of labourrights, especially of freedom of association.

Against this background, the paper then turned to the strategies of three ‘new’unions in the Indian garment sector in raising the voice of workers in the globalgarment supply chain. In the context of the extremely union-hostile garment sectorin India, it first looked at the local organising strategies of the three unions in orderto explore why they have been relatively successful in organising garment workers.Here it was found that at the local level, all three unions employ community organisingand mobilizing around the wider needs of workers as citizens and residents as acentral tool, as well as strong networking with other local organisations. In the caseof GAFWU in Chennai, this is done via a symbiotic relationship with Penn ThozhilalargalSangam, the women’s trade union for informal sector workers, whereas GATWU inBangalore works closely with its partner organisation Garment Mahila KarmikaraMunnade, a women’s organisation focusing on domestic and community problems ofwomen. Given the fact that the large majority of garment workers in Chennai andBangalore are women, these two unions and their partner organisations stronglyfocus on the particular needs of women. It is an approach which is rather uncommonas compared to the traditional male-dominated unionism in India which has historicallyrather neglected the needs of women workers.124 Since the majority of workers inGurgaon are men, GAWU focuses less on women’s issues. However, it has a similarstrong focus on community organising by cooperating closely with the worker’s platform“Mazdoor Ekta Manch” which unites cultural and community organizations and hasbeen central in building the trust of workers and building a bridge to GAWU. . . . . Basedon these findings it can be concluded that for these unions a combination of tackling

124 Bhomwik 2012: pp. 122- 129; Sankaran / Madhav 2011: pp. 14, 18-19.


labour issues together with community issues and cooperation with other civil societyorganizations is a central element of a successful local organising strategy in theunion-hostile Indian garment sector. This is an interesting finding in the context ofthe discussion on social movement unionism or strategic unionism as a possibleavenue for trade union revitalization in an era of precarisation and globalisation.Social movement unionism is based on the idea of seeing the worker not only in theidentity as a worker, but also as a citizen, woman, migrant etc. by mobilizing aroundtopics of broader concern for society. Strong alliance-building with other civil societyorganisations and an inclusive notion of solidarity towards non-union members arethe building blocks of this type of unionism which emerged in countries of the GlobalSouth with a high degree of union repression.125

The strategies of the three garment unions analysed in this paper reflect the aspectsof alliance-building and tackling of community issues, which builds a bridge to thegrowing number of trade unions in other parts of the world which apply elements ofsocial movement unionism in the context of an increasing precarisation of the workforceand erosion of traditional union strongholds.

Looking at the chances for local trade unions in integrating local and internationalorganising strategies in the global garment supply chain, it was found that in anumber of cases, the three unions have successfully used the cooperation withinternational labour rights networks and multi-stakeholder-initiatives such as the CleanClothes Campaign and the Worker’s Rights Consortium as a tool to increase theirbargaining power and organising capacity on the ground: this was the case for thesupplier of Timberland in Chennai (Celebrities’ Fashion), for the suppliers of G-Star(FFI/JKPL) and GAP in Bangalore and the supplier of GAP in Gurgaon (ModelamaExports). By building global labour networks with other civil society actors as acounterpart to corporate-controlled governance systems, the three unions have insome cases been able to push for the implementation of freedom of associationwhich is otherwise neglected in the corporate-controlled governance of worker’srights in global supply chains. This strategy has brought about sustainable improvementin the respective factories, as the management became aware of the unions’ capacityto use this leverage. Noticeably, in all of these cases, the international partners of thethree unions were networks of NGOs, students’ groups and trade unions (CCC andWRC). Considering these findings it can be argued that for defending freedom ofassociation on the ground in the context of the current governance system, it isrequired to build new bridges to non-union actors and to overcome the traditionaldivide between the labour movement and non-governmental organisations. This is notto deny the challenges and problems of union-NGO co-operations, nor is it to suggestthat the activism of NGOs and other civil society groups can in any way replacegenuine trade union organising on the ground. However, based on the analysis of thesuccessful cases of international cooperation mentioned above, it is suggested tostrongly acknowledge the potential of cooperation with non-union organisations andgroups, in order to build an effective counter-power to neoliberal pressures of capitaland the state.

125 See for example Hyman 1994; Robinson 2000; Brinkmann et al. 2008.


Looking at the challenges in the use of international leverages, the case of VivaGlobal in Gurgaon has illustrated once again the risk of a ‘cut and run’ approach ofthe international buyer. In some cases presented above, such as the one of ModelamaExports in Gurgaon and Texport Overseas in Bangalore, the local management hasbeen very responsive to international pressure which finally enabled an agreement.However, in the case of Viva Global in Gurgaon, the local management showed a highdegree of resistance to international pressure and the British buyer Marks & Spencerfinally cancelled its orders from the factory. Unlike the case of G-Star which finallyresumed its supply relationship with FFI/JKPL in Bangalore in the course of massiveinternational campaigning, the termination of orders was final in the case of VivaGlobal – Marks & Spencer’s. This shows that one of the ultimate challenges of usinginternational leverages as an organising strategy is to avoid ‘cutting and running’ ofthe international buyers in order to maintain production and employment in thefactory. An exploration of counter-strategies for this challenge may be an interestingaspect for further research and discussions in the context of transnational labournetworks.

Finally, the analysis exposed another major challenge in using international leveragesto support local organising: the question of targeting the local state as a determinantof working conditions. In most cases, the three unions used international pressure toget individual manufacturers and their international buyers to improve workingconditions or stop union busting. In contrast, when it comes to targeting the localstate, international leverage is only used to a very limited extent. For the representativesof GAFWU in Chennai, linking up with international pressure groups on its state-oriented campaign for a higher minimum wage is a major challenge in the efforts oflinking of local and international organising strategies. As the field research in Chennaishowed, the union felt ‘left alone’ by international networks in fighting against thestay order on minimum wages in Tamil Nadu.

On the one hand, as the president of GAWU emphasised, the idea of using internationalpressure to target the local state is delicate: it poses the question of legitimacy offoreign unionists and other activists to raise such demands, since they are not citizensof the country with democratic rights towards their elected government. On the otherhand, in the highly competitive, buyer-driven environment of the global garmentindustry, governments of garment producing countries are under strong pressure frominternational buyers to keep the wages low if they want to keep production in theircountry. Here, the question of democratic legitimacy of a small number of transnationalcorporations determining state policies such as minimum wage legislation is completelyomitted. In a global economic system which treats labour as a mere ‘cost factor’ andallows transnational corporations to indirectly pressurise governments all over theworld for ‘low labour costs’, international civil society pressure on governments maytherefore be needed as a counter-weight to the pressure and power of transnationalcorporations.

Tackling this aspect of corporate influence on governments, the Asia Floor Wagedemands that “global buyers insist that Asian governments adjust their garmentindustry wages to satisfy minimum living wage standards [....]. [They should]


furthermore clearly declare that wage increases will not lead to their relocation”126.This is one avenue through which local unions may use international pressure tostrengthen their demands towards the state. Another avenue is the use of internationalpressure to directly target the local state, as the example of GAWU’s wage theftcampaign has shown. However, both avenues are used to a very limited extent in theorganising strategies of the three unions, and as the case of GAFWU in Chennai hasshown, realising this leverage remains a considerable challenge. This may also be anaspect which deserves stronger attention in the context of transnational labournetworks in order to more effectively counter the disproportionate power oftransnational corporations in global supply chains.

126 Bhattacharjee and Merk 2011: p. 12.


VI. ReferencesAnner, Mark / Bair, Jennifer / Blasi, Jeremy – 2012: Buyer Power, Pricing Practices, andLabor Outcomes in Global Supply Chains.

Anner, Mark – 2011: Corporate Social Responsibility and International Labor Rights:

The Quest for Legitimacy and Control, in: Politics & Society, vol. 40 issue 4, pp. 609-644.

Asia Floor Wage Campaign – 2012: Latest Asia Floor Wage figure in Local Country Currencies.Available online at http://www.asiafloorwage.org/documentsLatest%20Asia%20Floor%20Wage%20figure2012.docx (accessed 07.06.2013).

Asia Floor Wage Campaign - 2012a: Asia Floor Wage Campaign International SteeringCommittee October 2012, available online at http://www.asiafloorwage.org/asiafloorwage-structure.htm (accessed 12.06.2013).

Barrientos, Stephanie / Smith, Sally – 2007: Do workers benefit from ethical trade? Assessingcodes of labour practice in global production systems, in: Third World Quarterly, 28:4, pp. 713– 729.

Bhattacharjee, Anannya / Azcarate, Fred – 2006: India’s new unionism, in: New Labor Forum,Vol. 15, No. 3, pp. 64-73.

Bhowmik, Sharit – 2007: Globalisation, Governance and Labour, in: Choudhary, Kameshwar(ed.): Globalisation, Governance Reforms and Development in India, Sage Publications, NewDelhi, pp. 281 – 302.

Blowfield, Michael / Dolan, Catherine – 2008: Stewards of Virtue? The Ethical Dilemma ofCSR in African Agriculture, in: Development and Change, vol. 39, no. 1, pp. 1–23.

Bourque, Reynald – 2008: International Framework Agreements and the Future of CollectiveBargaining in Multinational Companies, in: Just Labour: A Canadian Journal of Work andSociety, vol. 12, pp. 30-47.

Brinkmann, Ulrich et al. – 2008: Strategic Unionism - Aus der Krise zur Erneuerung derGewerkschaften. Umrisse eines Forschungsprogramms: Wiesbaden: VS Verlag.

Business Standard - 13.11.2014: Modi cabinet clears labour reform bills, available online at:

http://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/modi-cabinet-clears-labour-reform-bills-114073100236_1.html (accessed 20.11.2014).

Carroll, A. – 1999: Corporate social responsibility, in: Business & society, vol. 38, no. 3, pp.268–295.

Chamberlain, Gethin - 2010: Indian workers at factory linked to Marks & Spencer say theywere beaten, available online at http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/sep/05/marks-spencer-viva-global-workers-abuse (accessed 27.05.2013).


Cividep – 2013: About us. Available online at http://cividep.org/ (accessed 13.06.2013).

Claeson, Björn – 2012: Deadly secrets, International Labour Rights Forum, available online athttp://laborrights.org/sites/default/files/publications-and-resources/DeadlySecrets.pdf(accessed 07.05.2013).

Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) – 2005: Looking for a quick fix. How weak social auditing iskeeping workers in sweatshops. Amsterdam.

Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) – 2013: Rana Plaza: a man-made disaster that shook theworld, available online at: http://www.cleanclothes.org/ua/2013/rana-plaza (accessed1.12.2014).

Crouch, Colin – 2006: Modelling the firm in its market and organizational environment:methodologies for studying corporate social responsibility, in: Organization Studies, vol. 27,no. 10, pp. 1533–1551.

De Neeve, Geert – 2008: Global garment chains, local labour activism: new challenges totrade union and NGO activism in the Tiruppur garment cluster, South India, in: De Neve,Geert / Luetchford, Peter / Pratt, Jeffrey / Wood, Pratt (ed.): Hidden Hands in the Market:Ethnographies of Fair Trade, Ethical Consumption, and Corporate Social Responsibility (Researchin Economic Anthropology, Volume 28), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp. 213-240.

De Neeve, Gert – 2009: Power, inequality and Corporate Social responsibility: The Politics ofethical Compliance in the South Indian Garment industry, in: Economic and Political Weekly,vol. XLIV, no. 22, pp. 63 – 72.

Der Spiegel – 27.01.2014: Lotsen ohne Kompass, available online at http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-124719296.html (accessed 01.12.2014).

Devaraja, T.S. - 2011: Indian Textile and Garment Industry – An Overview, available online athttp://sibresearch.org/uploads/2/7/9/9/2799227/working_paper_-_dr_devaraja.pdf (accessed10.06.2013).

Dorairaj, S. – 2010: Driven to despair, in: Frontline, vol. 27, no. 20, available online at http://www.frontline.in/static/html/fl2720/stories/20101008272000400.htm (accessed 12.06.2013).

Egels-Zandén, Niklas – 2007: Suppliers’ Compliance with MNCs’ Codes of Conduct: Behindthe Scenes at Chinese Toy Suppliers, in: Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 75, no. 1, pp. 45-62.

Esbenshade, Jill – 2001: The social accountability contract: Private monitoring from LosAngeles to the global apparel industry, in: Labor Studies Journal, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 98-120.

Esbenshade, Jill – 2004: Monitoring Sweatshops: Workers, Consumers and the Global ApparelIndustry, Temple University Press, Philadelphia.

Fichter, Michael / Sydow, Jörg – 2008: Organization and Regulation of Employment Relationsin Transnational Production and Supply Networks. Ensuring Core Labor Standards throughInternational Framework Agreements? Revised Project Proposal submitted to the Hans-Boeckler-Foundation. Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin.

Fichter, Michael et al. – 2012: Globalising labour relations: On Track with FrameworkAgreements? Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Berlin, available online at: http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/iez/09422-20121129.pdf (accessed 01.11.2013).


Firstbiz – 17.10.2014: Labour reforms begin: PM Modi’s Shramev Jayate will boost jobs inSMEs, available online at http://firstbiz.firstpost.com/economy/labour-reforms-begin-pm-modis-shramev-jayate-will-boost-jobs-in-smes-105234.html (accessed 02.11.2014).

Fransen, Luc / Kolk, Ans – 2007: Global Rule-Setting for Business: A Critical Analysis ofMulti-Stakeholder Standards, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, available online at http://dare.uva.nl/document/176362 (accessed 10.06.2013).

Germany Trade and Invest – 2013: Indische Textilindustrie muss wettbewerbsfähiger werden.Available online at http://www.gtai.de/GTAI/Navigation/DE/Trade/maerkte,did=770418.html(accessed 26.06.2013).

Government of India (Ministry of Textiles) – 2006: Report of the Working Group on Textiles& Jute Industry for the Eleventh Five Year Plan (2007-2012), available online at http://planningcommission.gov.in/aboutus/committee/wrkgrp11/wg11_textiles.pdf (accessed19.06.2013).

Government of India (Ministry for Textiles) - 2013: Annual Report 2012-13, available onlineat http://texmin.nic.in/annualrep/ar_12_13_english.pdf (accessed 19.06.2013).

Government of India (Ministry of Textiles) – 2013a: Note on Textiles and Clothing Exports ofIndia, available online at http://texmin.nic.in/sectornote_on_indian_textile_and_clothing_exports_intl_trade_section.pdf (accessed 31.05.2013).

Göpel, Maja – 2003: Gleiche Interessen? Vom Etikettenschwindel in Public-Private Partnerships,in: Nord-Süd aktuell, vol. 1, pp. 110–125.

Gregoratti, Catia / Miller, Doug – 2009: (Re-) Instating Decent Work through Mature Systemsof Industrial Relations: the Case of River Rich Cambodia, paper prepared for the ConferenceRegulating for decent work: Innovative labour regulation in a turbulent world, InternationalLabour Organization, 8-10 July 2009, Geneva, Switzerland.

Gross, Tandiwe – 2013: Rana Plaza – Private governance and corporate power in globalsupply chains. In: Global Labour Column, No. 143, edited by Corporate Strategy and IndustrialDevelopment (CSID), University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Available online at:http://www.global-labour-university.org/fileadmin/GLU_Column/papers/no_143_Gross.pdf

Hale, Angela / Shaw, Linda - 2001: Women Workers and the Promise of Ethical Trade in theGlobalised Garment Industry: A Serious Beginning? In: Antipode, Volume 33, Issue 3, pp.510–530.

Hoellen, Florian – 2010: Die indischen Gewerkschaften der Linken. Ein aktueller Überblick mitthematischen Schwerpunkten, in: Thought Factory 1, RLS South Asia working paper series,Berlin / Pune.

Hurley, Jennifer – 2005: Unravelling the Web: Supply Chains and Workers. Lives in theGarment Industry’ in A. Hale and J. Wills (eds.) Threads of Labour: Garment Industry SupplyChains from the Workers’ Perspective, Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 70–94.

Hütz-Adams, Friedel – 2010: Menschenrechte im Anbau von Kakao: Eine Bestandsaufnahmeder Initiativen der Kakao- und Schokoladenindustrie, published by Institut für Entwicklungund Frieden, Universität Duisburg Essen, Duisburg.

Hütz-Adams, Friedel – 2011: Im Boden der Tatsachen: Metallische Rohstoffe und ihreNebenwirkungen, published by Südwind Institut für Ökonomie und Ökumene, Siegburg.


Hyman, Richard – 1994: Changing Trade Union Identities and Strategies. In R. Hyman andA. Ferner (Eds.), New frontiers in European industrial relations (pp. 108–140). Oxford, UK;Cambridge, Mass., USA: Blackwell.

Italian Trade Commission – 2009: The Fashion Market in India Profile 2009, available onlineat http://italiaindia.com/images/uploads/pdf/fashion-market-in-india-profile-2009.pdf (accessed19.06.2013).

Jenkins, Jean – 2012: Union Formation by Female Garment Workers in India: Moving Forwardin Unity, paper presented at the 16th World Congress of the International Labour andEmployment Relations Association (ILERA) Conference, 2-5 July 2012, Philadelphia, availableonline at http://ilera2012.wharton.upenn.edu/RefereedPapers/JenkinsJean%20ILERA.pdf(accessed 06.06.2013).

Jones, Richard – 2006: The Apparel Industry, Second Edition, Blackwell Publishing, Oxford.

Kemp, Melody – 2001: Corporate Social Responsibility in Indonesia: Quixotic Dream orConfident Expectation? Technology, Business and Society Programme Paper Number 6, UnitedNations Research Institute for Social Development, Geneva.

Khan, Imran - 2012: Workers Take Out The Dirty Linen Of The Garment Industry. Tehelka Daily,27.11.2012, available online at http://tehelka.com/workers-take-out-the-dirty-linen-of-the-garment-industry/ (accessed 25.06.2013).

Kocher, Eva – 2008: Corporate Social Responsibility: Instrumente zur Gestaltung transnationalerArbeitsbeziehungen, in: WSI-Mitteilungen, vol.4/2008, pp. 198–204.

Locke, Richard / Qin, Fei / Brause, Alberto - 2007. Does Monitoring Improve Labor Standards?Lessons from Nike, in: Industrial and Labor Relations Review, vol. 61, no. 1, pp. 3-31.

Lambooij, Tineke – 2010: Corporate Social Responsibility. Legal and Semi-Legal FrameworksSupporting CSR. Developments 2000-2010 and Case Studies, doctoral thesis at LeidenUniversity, available online at https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/handle/1887/16169 (accessed19.06.2013).

Luce, Stephanie – 2009: Raising Wages on a Regional Level: The Asia Floor Wage, in AsiaFloor Wage Working Paper Series No.1, New Delhi.

Lyimo, Mahoo – 2010: Sexual harassment: an insight into the Indian garment industry,published by Cividep-India, Bangalore, available online at http://cividep.org/sexual-harassment/(accessed 19.06.2013).

Maher, Samantha – 2010: Taking Liberties: the story behind the UK high street, publishedby War on Want and Labour behind the Label, London/Bristol, available online at http://www.waronwant.org/attachments/Taking%20Liberties.pdf (accessed 19.06.2013).

Mani, Mohan – 2011: Garments Sector and Unionisation in India – Some Critical Issues,published by Cividep - India, Bangalore, available online at http://cividep.org/wp-content/uploads/garment-sector-and-unionisation-in-india-report.pdf (accessed 10.06.2013).

Mazdoor Ekta Manch – 2013: Tell the Indian Government to stop companies stealing fromworkers’ wages!, available online at http://www.change.org/petitions/tell-the-indian-government-to-stop-companies-stealing-from-workers-wages (accessed 27.05.2013).

Menon, Sreelatha – 2013: Indian trade unions are getting bigger, coinciding with slowdown.Business Standard, 06.04.2013, available online at http://www.business-standard.com/article/


economy-policy/indian-trade-unions-are-getting-bigger-coinciding-with-slowdown-113040600392_1.html (accessed 25.09.2013).

Merk, Jeroen - 2011: Cross border wage struggles in the global garment industry. Thecampaign for an Asia floor wage, in: Bieler, Andreas; Lindberg, Ingemar (ed.): GlobalRestructuring, Labour and the Challenges for Transnational Solidarity, Routledge, London/New York, pp. 116 130.

Mezzadri, Alessandra – 2008: The rise of neo-liberal globalization and the ‘New Old’ SocialRegulation of Labour: a case of Delhi garment sector, in: The Indian Journal of LabourEconomics, vol. 51, no. 4, pp. 603 – 618.

Mody, Sujata – 2012: Petition before the National Tribunal on Living Wages for GarmentWorkers by Garment and Fashion Workers’ Union, GAFWU, Chennai, petition submitted tothe National Tribute on Living Wages for Garment workers from 22.-25.11.2012 in Bangalore.

NTUI News – 13.06.2012: Women workers dharna demanding fair wages at Tambaram SEZ,available online at http://ntui.org.in/ntui-news/item/women-workers-dharna-demanding-fair-wages-at-tambaram-sez/ (accessed 10.06.2013).

OECD Watch – 2013: CCC & ICN vs G-Star. Case overview, available online at http://oecdwatch.org/cases/Case_109 (accessed 19.06.2013).

Overeem, Pauline / Peepercamp, Marijn – 2012: Bonded (child) labour in the South IndianGarment Industry. An Update of Debate and Action on the ‘Sumangali Scheme’, publishedby Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO) and India Committee of theNetherlands (ICN), Amsterdam/ Utrecht.

Pangsapa, Piya – 2007: Textures of Struggle: The emergence of resistance among garmentworkers in Thailand, Cornell University Press, Ithaca.

Pratap, Surendra – 2011: Trade Union Repression in India. Published by Asia Monitor ResourceCentre, Hong Kong, available online at http://www.amrc.org.hk/system/filesResearch%20Paper-Trade%20Union%20Repression%20in%20India.pdf (accessed 06.06.2013).

Robinson, Ian – 2000: Neoliberal restructuring and US unions: toward social movementunionism? Critical Sociology, 26(1-2), 109–138.

RoyChowdhury, Supriya – 1996: Industrial Restructuring, Unions and the State. Textile MillWorkers in Ahmedabad, in: Economic and Political Weekly, vol. XXXI, No. 8, pp. 7-13.

RoyChowdhury, Supriya – 2005: Labour Activism and Women in the Unorganised Sector.Garment Export Industry in Bangalore, in: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 40, No. 22/23,pp. 2250-2255.

Sankaran, Kamala / Madhav, Rupa – 2011: Gender Equality and Social Dialogue in India,International Labour Office, Working Paper 1/2011, Geneva. Available online at http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—dgreports/—gender/documents/publication/wcms_150428.pdf (accessed 19.06.2013).

Singh, Suhasini – 2009: Richer Bosses, Poorer Workers. Bangalore’s Garment Industry,published by Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO), Amsterdam, availableonline at http://cividep.org/richer-bosses-poorer-workers/ (accessed 06.06.2013).


Society for Labour and Development (SLD) – 2012: A Study of the Contract Labour Systemin the Garment Industry in Gurgaon, New Delhi, available online at http://www.labour-rights-india.eu/documents/Contract_Labour_Report-SLD-2012-1.pdf (accessed 19.06.2013).

Society for Labour and Development (SLD) – 2012a: Working Conditions in GarmentManufacturing and Exporting Companies in Gurgaon, available online at http://www.sldindia.org/uploads/1/1/5/1/11513584working_conditions_in_garment_industry_in_gurn.pdf (accessed 20.06.2013).

Society for Labour and Development (SLD) – 2013: Home. Available online at http://www.sldindia.org/ (accessed 19.06.2013).

Srivasta, Ravi – 2005: Bonded Labour in India: Its Incidence and Pattern, Working Paper 43,International Labour Office, Geneva, available online at http://www.ilo.int/wcmsp5/groups/public/—ed_norm/—declaration/documents/publication/wcms_081967.pdf (accessed19.06.2013).

Sukumar, Meghna – 2012: Organising Women Garment Workers in India. Press note for theinternational conference of the ‘Transnationals Information Exchange” (TIE) network, 20.-23.09.2012, Bad Homburg.

The Hindu – 05.04.2012: Costliest city’s garment workers paid less than those in other cities,available online at http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-karnataka/costliest-citys-garment-workers-paid-less-than-those-in-other-cities/article3282615.ece?css=print(accessed 10.06.2013).

The Indian Express –3.6.2013: Trade union membership: CPI eclipses its ‘big brother’, availableonline at ttp://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/Trade-union-membership-CPI-eclipses-its-big-brother/2013/06/03/article1617463.ece (accessed 15.06.2013).

The Indian Express – 31.05.2011: Garments exports up about 24 % in Feb, available onlineat http://www.indianexpress.com/news/garment-exports-up-about-24—in-feb/769813/(accessed 19.06.2013).

Thomas, Mark – 2011: Global Industrial Relations? Framework Agreements and the Regulationof International Labour Standards, in: Labor Studies Journal, vol. 1, no. 36, pp. 269-287.

United Nations 2012: UN Global Compact Participants, available online at http://www.unglobalcompact.org/ParticipantsAndStakeholders/index.html (accessed 19.06.2013).

United Workers Congress (UWC) – 2013: Report of the February 2013 Human Rights Delegationto Gurgaon, India. Available online at http://www.excludedworkerscongress.org/component/k2/item/22-report-of-the-february-2013-human-rights-delegation-to-gurgaon-india (accessed06.06.2013).

United Workers Congress (UWC) – 2013a: About. Available online at http://www.excludedworkers.org/about (accessed 06.06.2013).

Utting, Peter – 2002: Regulating business via multistakeholder initiatives: A preliminaryassessment, In: United Research Research Institute for Social Development (ed.): VoluntaryApproaches to Corporate Responsibility: Readings and a Resource Guide, available online athttp://www.unrisd.org/80256B3C005BCCF9/(httpAuxPages)35F2BD0379CB6647C1256CE6002B70AA/$file/uttngls.pdf (accessed 10.06.2013).


Utting, Peter – 2005: Rethinking business regulation: From Self-Regulation to Social Control,Technology, Business and Society Programme Paper Number 15, United Nations ResearchInstitute for Social Development, Geneva.

Utting, Peter – 2008: The struggle for corporate accountability. In: Development and Change,vol. 39, no. 6, pp. 959–975.

Verite – 2010: Help Wanted: Hiring Human Trafficking and Modern-Day Slavery in the GlobalEconomy Regional Report - Indian Workers in Domestic Textile Production and Middle East-Based Manufacturing, Infrastructure, and Construction, available online at http://www.verite.org/sites/default/files/imagesHELP%20WANTED_A%20Verite%CC%81%20Report_Indian%20Migrant%20Workers.pdf(accessed 19.06.2013).

Wick, Ingeborg – 2005: Workers’ Tool or PR Ploy: A Guide to Codes of International LabourPractice: 4th revised edition, published by Südwind Institut für Ökonomie und Ökumene,Bonn.

Wick, Ingeborg – 2007: Aldi’s clothing bargains: Discount buys discounting standards?Published by Südwind Institut für Ökonomie und Ökumene, Siegburg.

Wick, Ingeborg – 2009: Aldi’s Special Bargains from China, published by Südwind Institut fürÖkonomie und Ökumene, Siegburg.

World Bank - 2003: Strengthening Implementation of Corporate Social Responsibility in GlobalSupply Chains. Washington DC.


InterviewsInterview Barnwal – 2013: Interview with Vikash Kumar Barnwal [legal advisor of GAWU] on22.05.2013, New Delhi.

Interview Bhattacharjee – 2013: Interview with Annanya Bhattacharjee [president of GAWU]on 10.06.2013, New Delhi.

Interview Bhosale – 2013: Interview with Jayaram Bhosale [treasurer of HMS] on 12.12.2013,Geneva.

Interview Jayaram – 2013: Interview with J.K. Jayaram [legal adviser of GATWU] on11.04.2013, Bangalore.

Interview Jayaram / Pratibha – 2013: Interview with J.K. Jayaram [legal adviser of GATWU]and Pratibha [vice-president of GATWU] on 09.04.2013, Bangalore.

Interview Mani – 2013: Interview with Mohan Mani [legal adviser of GATWU] on 10.04.2013,Bangalore.

Interview Mody / Sukumar – 2013: Interview with Sujata Mody [president of GAFWU] andMeghna Sukumar [organizer of GAFWU] on 06.04.2013, Chennai.

Interview Mody – 2013: Interview with Sujata Mody [president of GAFWU] on 08.04.2013,Chennai.

Interview Roy – 2013: Interview with Ashim Roy [at that time general secretary of the NTUI]on 27.09.2013, Mumbai.

Documents

Raising the voice of workers in global supply chains the voice of workers in global supply ... buyer-driven supply chain, ... it then explores the micro perspective of three local